Inutility
If you are even mildly addicted to detective fiction and have devoured every golden-ager and modern hack, here are writers hewing large series of tales who work the fringes of the mystery map where it says “Here Be Dragons” (not meaning nasty fantasy stuff, by the way): David Fulmer is a busy contemporary writer who sets his tales in the heyday of early jazz and blues—three fine stories in New Orleans 1905-10, featuring Buddy Bolden and Jelly Roll Morton among many, Chasin’ the Devil’s Tail (2001), Jass (2005) and Rampart Street (2006) and a new story of mid-1920s Atlanta, featuring Blind Willie McTell and Co., The Dying Crapshooter’s Blues (2007). Great stuff! Then there is dour Swedish master Henning Mankell, who over 10 years wrote a sequence of creepy tales set in central
Goooood listening: CDs of strange but compelling music, possibly off your personal radar scopes: the pioneering art-rock of Van Dyke Parks from the mid-60s has morphed into a lifetime of experimental but highly listenable orchestral music and songs wholly undefinable—rockjazzclassicfolkcountryblues etc. Go back and hear his first great works, Song Cycle and Discover America, from the gyrating 1960s, and his more recent work on CD, Idiosyncratic Path: The Best of Van Dyke Parks (1994), Tokyo Rose (1989), Jump! (1984) and a live retrospective concert Moonlighting (1998). He also backs modish and exotic new singer Joanna Newsom on her latest CD, Ys (2006). Then there is ukulele lady and singer Janet Klein, who has swept out every corner of American pop music of the 1920s-30s and performs it with rare zest, oomph and exactitude with her own first-rate hokum band, the Parlor Boys. Her CDs are: Come into My Parlor (1998), Put a Flavor to Love (2002), Paradise Wobble (2003), Living in Sin (2004), Oh! (2005). “Doesn’t matter if it’s sweet or hot—our Janet gives it everything she’s got!” For more info, try www.janetklein.com or email janetrob@sbcglobal.net
Don’t you need a kaleidoscope? Almost every adult reaches a point where they say they do, so apply to the world’s greatest kaleidoscopists, at Andrew and Robyn’s Kaleidoscopes,
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